BloodMoon: Captivated by the Forbidden Lycan Alpha
Chapter 209: STAND DOWN GUARDS

Chapter 209: STAND DOWN GUARDS

{ "Leaders aren’t born, they are made."}

Sierra walked over to me, her expression unreadable, but I knew her well enough to recognize the grief tightening the corners of her mouth and the tension in her voice as she began to speak.

"There’s been no word," she said, her tone clipped and formal, but her eyes flicked to mine. "No message. No trace. Not from Freyr, not from Dante."

The words struck me like a cold knife, but I did not let it show. "How long since their last contact?" I asked.

"Three days. The ravens we sent to their camp returned without reply. The last scrying attempt failed. Whatever magic lingers around Blood Stone Mountain, it has grown stronger, blinding, even."

Murmurs rippled through the hall. Amon paced up and down, lips tightening. "We must be patient and trust that Dante will keep Freyr safe."

"Patient," I echoed softly, eyes scanning the faces before me."

"Yes," Sierra added, as if to shield me from the unspoken accusation brewing behind a few wary stares. "We do not want to have no hope that they can come back safe.

I clenched my jaw. "Freyr does not fall easily. Neither does Dante."

Sierra’s voice dropped a note. "I know, but he is my son, and I cannot help but worry. "

"They’re not dead," I said finally, the words more to the room than myself. "We must keep the faith as we keep protecting Paradise Coven and ensure the realm remains at peace.

There was a beat of silence. Then Sierra spoke again, gentler this time. "We can prepare a second party, Aurora. Reinforcements. But if we delay any longer..."

Her voice trailed off, and the unspoken truth sat thick in the room.

I turned back, feeling the weight of every gaze. "Then we do not delay. I want a search party ready by nightfall. "

Before I could speak again, a voice cut cleanly across the chamber. "That is a bad idea." Nessa. Always poised, always precise. She did not raise her voice, but the conviction in it held like a blade pressed to my resolve. She walked around the Coven council chamber, her violet robes whispering across the floor. "We already have the vampire rogue army that was raised by Lord Marcel loose in the eastern region. That should be our priority."

The room stiffened around her words. A few council members nodded subtly, and I could feel the shift, a ripple of hesitation, and I narrowed my eyes but let her continue.

"We know that Freyr travels with Dante, Rolan, Rou, and Alpha Tor of the Bay Shifter Pack," she said, measured but firm. "If there is any group capable of surviving the evil in Blood Stone Mountain, it is them. Let us keep the faith and wait for them to communicate."

Faith, a lovely sentiment when you were not the one watching a scrying bowl turn to ash. When you were not the one who felt the fray in the wards like a thread unravelling beneath your skin. I stepped down from the dais slowly, every step echoing off stone and memory.

"And if they don’t?" I asked quietly. "If they’ve been taken, or worse, turned against us in that cursed place, would you have us wait until Marcel’s army grows strong enough to tear open our gates before we realize we’ve left our strongest allies to rot in silence?"

Nessa met my gaze. Calm. Calculating. "If we spread our resources too thin, we’ll be too weak to stop either threat."

"And if we abandon them, what are we?" I snapped, the edge finally showing. "What is a Coven that sacrifices its own in the name of convenience?"

Nessa exhaled slowly. "We must be strategic, Aurora. Not emotional."

I let the silence stretch between us for a moment. Then: "I am not being emotional," I said, voice low but steeled with magic that stirred faintly in the air, sharp and ancient. "I am aware. A leader feels the tremors before the mountain breaks. And I feel it, Nessa. In my bones. In the magic. Something is wrong." I let my eyes drift back to the map. To the mark burned into the mountain. "They are not just allies. They are family." And I do not leave my family in the dark.

Before I could speak again, Sierra rose from her seat like a storm gathering beneath silk.

"I would know if my son was in danger." The room stilled. Even Nessa quieted, her gaze flicking toward Sierra with a hint of caution. Sierra did not raise her voice. She did not need to. Her words held the iron of blood-bond magic, old and unshakable. Her posture was rigid, fists clenched at her sides, but her eyes... gods, her eyes were blazing.

"Also, Dante carries a piece of my soul," she continued, voice cutting through the tension like frost through spring. "If something had happened to him, if even a shadow had touched him, I would feel it in my marrow." The ache behind her words coiled through the chamber like smoke.

I watched her, measured, and still. Sierra did not speak lightly about Freyr or Dante. She rarely spoke of him at all in the council chambers, preferring to keep her role as the former Lady of the Coven. "We stand down," she said firmly, turning her gaze to the others. "Freyr, Dante, Rolan, Rou, and Alpha Tor, they were chosen for a reason. They are the only ones who could face what is in that mountain and return. We owe them time to fight, not panic."

Several heads nodded slowly, including Nessa’s, though her lips were pursed in tight reluctance. "And while we wait," Sierra continued, "we deal with the real threat currently moving Lord Marcel’s rogue vampire army. If we do not intercept them before they reach Bay Shifter land, we risk a massacre, and then Bay Shifter lands will retaliate, which is something we must avoid. Her voice broke slightly on that last word, and I saw the truth there; this was not about Freyr or Dante. It was about all the lives balancing on the edge of our next decision and the peace of the realm.

I drew in a breath, steadying the whirlwind beneath my ribs. The room felt colder, but clearer. I finally nodded. "We will shift focus to intercept the Vampire army near the Eastern Crescent. We will shield the Bay Shifter land. But if another day passes with no word from the mountain..."

My eyes swept across the room. "I go myself." Sierra’s voice rose, and I could tell that was a final command.

Just as the silence began to settle again, Captain Belisont stepped forward from the shadows flanking the east archway, his silver and black uniform gleaming even in the low torchlight. The emblem Paradise Coven guards a coiled serpent around a flame resting over his heart, stitched in blood-thread. He stopped just short of the council circle and bowed his head. "Permission to address the council, Lady Aurora."

I nodded once, slowly. "Speak, Captain."

He raised his head, eyes locking with mine not in challenge, but with the grave steadiness of a man who had fought too many battles to waste words. "I come with a concern," he said, his voice deep and even. "One that touches the core of our safety, here and now."

The council shifted. Sierra’s eyes narrowed slightly, always wary of military declarations. Nessa leaned back with arms crossed, sceptical. Belisont continued. "If we are to keep the Paradise Coven safe, truly safe, we must look inward as much as we look outward. Lord Marcel’s betrayal did not begin with the rogue army. It began with whispered loyalty. With splinters within our ranks." He paused, letting the truth settle. "There are still guards within our royal legion who once served under Marcel. Some pledged to him before he fell from grace. Others... may still."

I felt it then, that cold pulse beneath the floor hint of truth we had all been too careful to name. He looked at me directly. "If we are to remain whole, my Lady, then I request this council’s permission to conduct a loyalty binding. Every guard, every soldier under the Paradise Coven Royal guards must swear allegiance to you."

My breath caught, not from surprise, but from the sudden clarity of it. The weight of what it would mean.

"And if they refuse?" I asked quietly.

Belisont did not flinch. "Then they do not belong in these halls. And they cannot be trusted with your life or the lives of anyone here." A murmur passed through the council like a low wind stirring dead leaves.

"Are you suggesting there are traitors among us now?" Nessa’s voice was sharp, sceptical.

"I’m suggesting we don’t wait to find out the hard way," he replied, never breaking eye contact with me.

I stared at him, at the man who had stood beside me through sieges, bloodshed, and betrayal. He had never asked for politics. Never offered opinions in council unless war was close.

I nodded slowly, feeling the full weight of the decision settle on my shoulders. "You have my permission, Captain Belisont. Begin the bindings. Quietly. I want no fear spreading through the ranks, just certainty."

He bowed again. "As you command, Lady Aurora."

As he stepped back, I felt it: the subtle, invisible shifting of power across the room. Sierra gave me a short nod. Nessa said nothing, but her eyes had sharpened. There would be ripples from this. Even resistance. But I would rather shake the roots of this Coven than let it rot from the inside.

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